Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON, Feb 28 2010 (IPS) – As the war over health care continues in Washington and a war of a bloodier nature heats up in Ciudád Juárez and elsewhere in Mexico, top U.S. and Mexican officials are hoping to reduce both pressures on the health system and the ongoing bloodshed.
A three-day conference at the U.S. State Department concluded Thursday with a joint acknowledgement by the two countries of the crucial need to reduce drug demand and intensify prevention and treatment efforts.
We are building a health system that prepares communities to prevent illicit drug consumption and promotes a healthy society, said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
But south of the U.S.-Mexico border, violence related to drug traffic…
Susan Anyangu-Amu
NAIROBI, Apr 1 2010 (IPS) – Pregnant mothers who are HIV-positive could soon find it challenging to access life-saving HIV drugs because Kenya was denied 270 million dollars in funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
An estimated 6 percent of pregnant women in Kenya are HIV-posit…
Michael Standaert
GUIYU, China, May 2 2010 (IPS) – Like many who have profited from the electronic waste trade in this southern Chinese town, hospital administrator Lin Banghong does not live there. I ve worked here 10 years and haven t gotten sick, he said.
At a makeshift e-waste workshop in China s Guiyu town, a migrant worker coo…
Suleiman Mbatiah
NAIROBI, Jun 14 2010 (IPS) – Much of the initiative behind the adoption of Kenya s controversial anti-counterfeit law came from multinational pharmaceutical companies using their membership of a local manufacturers association to push the legislation.
Kenya s Anti-Counterfeit Act of 2008, aimed at stemming the supply of counterfeits, has caused widespread concern as it may lead to law enforcement agencies stopping legitimate generic medicines at the country s borders. The law s application to medicines was suspended in April 2010 pending a court challenge brought by health rights activists.
Pharmaceutical companies called on other sectors represented in the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) a few years ago to support their initiative against co…
Helda Martínez
BOGOTÁ, Jul 13 2010 (IPS) – In Colombia, western medicine has nearly succeeded in pushing midwives parteras or comadronas, as they are known in Spanish out of existence. But some tenacious practitioners are pushing for a law to formalise the role of midwife as a health worker.
Rosmilda and Liceth Quiñones on a visit to Bogotá. Credit: Helda Martínez/IPS
Through 2009 and so far in 2010, there have been no deaths of women attended by a member of the United Midwives of the Pacific Association…
NAIROBI, Aug 4 2010 (IPS) – Precious Nabwire nearly died giving birth to her fourth child. If Kenyan gynaecologists have their way, a drug to control bleeding after childbirth will be licensed, offering greater protection to tens of thousands of women facing similar danger.
Her daughter named Chausiku, she of the night , in honour of her arrival just past midnight was born in Nabwire s home.
My labour began in the night and getting to Pumwani Maternity Hospital was out of question because I would have had to use a taxi and this would have cost a tidy sum of 1,000 Kenyan shillings ($12.50 U.S.), Nabwire recounts.
She sent for a traditional birth attendant who lived nearby. Nabwire was sure the delivery would be as smooth as her first three.
How wrong I was.…
Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON, Sep 2 2010 (IPS) – A loan deal between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and flood-stricken Pakistan announced Thursday has drawn the ire of several NGOs that claim the deal represents an inadequate and cynical response to the disaster that is estimated to have affected the lives of millions.
The news of the loan follows more than a week of talks between Pakistani and IMF officials here, in which Pakistan hoped some of the terms of the 10.66 billion dollar loan granted in 2008 would be loosened in light of the floods which have left a dent in the Pakistani economy that is likely to last long after the floodwaters have receded.
Those loan terms set deficit and inflation targets Pakistan has said it will be unable to meet in a post-flood e…
Charles Mpaka
LILONGWE, Sep 24 2010 (IPS) – In Ntcheu, a rural district in central Malawi, villagers have taken the fight against the country s high maternal mortality rate into their own hands. They have almost eradicated maternal deaths in the area by urging pregnant women to give birth in hospitals, under medical supervision.
Chief Kwataine, who has 89 villages in Ntcheu under his traditional authority, launched a maternal health campaign that first addressed common cultural beliefs associated with pregnancy, for example that a woman s first child should be born at home or that the men of the family decide when women need medical attention. Kwataine also banned all traditional birth attendants in his villages, compelling women to give birth in hospital.
These measu…
Isaiah Esipisu
VIHIGA, Western Kenya, Oct 18 2010 (IPS) – Pastor Joseph Muhembeli and his wife, Beatrice, queue at the Vihiga health centre with their six-month-old daughter for their prevention of mother-to-child treatment (PMTCT). But before long, as per the clinic s policy, the couple are whisked to the front of the line all because Muhembeli has accompanied his wife for the treatment.
HIV-positive couple Joseph and Beatrice Muhembeli have bee…
Matthew O. Berger
WASHINGTON, Nov 19 2010 (IPS) – Rising food prices have not yet reached crisis levels but they are expected to remain very volatile for about the next decade, researchers said Thursday.
The conclusions were based on a new study of the factors that contributed to the 2007-08 food crisis, which researchers hope will shed light on what actions might be taken to avoid food crises in the future.
There were many suspects for what caused the crisis, but little evidence, said Derek Headey, a research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, who co- authored the report. Three years on, there is more evidence.
The IFPRI study cites a perfect storm of factors: rising energy prices, demand for biofuels, depreciation of the U.S. dolla…